CHAPTER TOOLS

Keywords:

monocentric regions;

polycentric regions;

urban regions;

cooperation;

urban competition;

complementarity;

policy collaboration

Summary

When urban regions get larger, and roughly pass the population threshold of one million, their structure is likely to become polycentric rather than monocentric. In this situation, local administrative units, often municipalities, have to cooperate with each other to develop common strategic capacity. Because they differ so much from each other, and because of the necessity to cooperate, they are more or less forced to develop complementary milieus within the urban region. However, there is also an on-going tendency for smaller units in such regions to compete with each other. New policies to profit from multiple strengths and internal cooperation may present more opportunities than policies that are based on internal competition.